TOPICS
TOPICS
EPA's move to 'modernize' libraries spurs concerns
In response to a congressional mandate that the Environmental Protection Agency restore closed libraries, the agency said it will proceed with modernizing its library network, leading some people to believe the EPA will not resume physical library operations.
Molly O'Neill, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Environmental Information, issued a statement Monday that said, "EPA continues to modernize its library network to enhance access to information for EPA employees and the public."
After the president's fiscal 2007 budget recommended major cuts in library funding, EPA closed three regional libraries and its headquarters library. Agency officials said they would move documents from physical facilities to a new, primarily digital network.
House lawmakers and the library community questioned the department on its plans for maintaining reference support and ensuring that materials remain freely available to the public throughout the transition. Today, those questions remain unanswered.
An amendment in a comprehensive spending bill for fiscal 2008 provides $1 million to "restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the administration." The language further directs EPA to submit a report to Congress within 90 days regarding actions EPA will take "to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region."
O'Neill said that in accordance with the legislation, "the agency intends to provide a report to Congress on our plans for continuing library improvements throughout the network."
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has said that EPA should preserve all EPA library buildings and materials until federal auditors complete an ongoing investigation, a Democratic staffer said on Tuesday. And he wants EPA to consult with Congress and the public, before moving forward with a library restructuring or modernization process.
On Monday, Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said EPA should be spelling out its plan in detail; providing "a roadmap for finding all of the missing collections that have been removed from libraries;" and disclosing how much money EPA took from library budgets to operate its modernization program.
He added that lawmakers should not have been forced to micromanage EPA operations.
Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association's Washington office, said on Tuesday that she is not criticizing EPA for failing to restore library services less than a month after the legislation was passed.
"I acknowledge that not enough time has passed," she said. "But it appears by Molly's statement that they still don't understand how important the Congress, the scientific community and the public believe access to this information is."
COMMENTS
- Let's see, in 1953 Clair Patterson noticed that levels of tetraethyl lead in the atmosphere were responsible for lead levels in American's blood 625 times higher than in 1923, the year before leaded gas was developed. Patterson worked from 1953 to 1970 to get the Clean Air Act passed. He didn't have EPA data to help him make his case. In order to establish what tetraethyl lead levels in the atmosphere had been previous to its use as an additive in gasoline, he had to take core samples of ice in the Arctic. The company that manufactures tetraethyl lead still maintains that "research has failed to show that leaded gasoline poses a threat to human health or the environment" and even tried to pay off Caltech where Patterson did research if they would get rid of him. Arctic ice may not provide reliable records of atmospheric chemistry for much longer. It's melting. And so, it seems, was the EPA library. That only .5 of a percent of its holdings have been digitized to date is a clue that it won't be online anytime soon. To have the data, we have to have it on paper. Oh, Hannah, "moaning" and "whining" are online buzzwords used exclusively, for what reason I can't fathom, by the big business fraternity. What I am doing is INDICTING. Sarah Posted January 22, 2008 9:11 PM
- Its the 21st Century and having books on shelves is a waste of time and money. Take the automotive industry they no longer publish detailed shop manuals for 2 reasons 1 they were costly and 2 they were impossible to keep current. The internet makes sure the data is always current and nothing is missing. This isn't another jobs program its a research function and it needs to be managed as one dan ketter Posted January 22, 2008 10:49 AM
- EPA has 90 days from December 26, to issue its report to Congress. Members of the American Library Association's Federal Libraries subcommittee of the Committee on Legislation, FAFLRT, GODORT, SRRT, and TFOE will read this report carefully. We read reports by: Stratus Consulting on the favorable return-on-investment provided EPA staff and the public by the Library Network, EPA Librarian's (2005) dealing with a proposed $1.5 million “cost reduction.” No one knows how the EPA will respond. You ask if we "know ANYTHING about how this is being worked out?" I ask if you attended the meetings ALA held with OEI staff at the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting. Were you at the SRO session at the 2007 ALA Annual Meeting, "Finding Environmental Information in the New Millennium: Continuing the Dialog” (three [3] weeks before this national forum, the EPA withdrew its speaker)? Have you been involved in meetings held among EPA/OEI and ALA, Special Libraries Association, and American Association of Law Libraries? ALA has been on top of this situation since PEER "broke" the story of a $2.0 million budget cut to the EPA Libraries. We invested hundreds of hours attending meetings, writing letters, participating in discussion (many with colleagues and friends in the EPA). We are librarians in the trenches working to protect collections from destruction, to assure reference services are adequate for the information needs of EPA's research, regulatory, policy, and enforcement staffs, and striving to assure that EPA information be made available to the public as it had 25+ years before the closings. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is issuing a report to Congress on the EPA Libraries in February. Librarians external to the EPA Library Network have contributed comments and remarks to the GAO. Hannah, some of us have been in the trenches for nearly two years. We recognize the roles played by “conscientious librarians and civil servants" and have extended opportunities for them assure the public that their actions provide what you call, "the best information resource the EPA can make." I am sorry that you are, "tired of [our] uninformed moaning." My question to you, dear, misinformed, Hannah, is, "Where has your voice been on this matter since we began working on this issue on February 10, 2006?" Frederick W. Stoss, M.S. (zool/ecol), M.L.S. Posted January 21, 2008 2:17 PM
